Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Ground-plum
Astragalus crassicarpus
Pea family (Fabaceae)

This is one of the easier Milk vetches to identify -- when it is in . The pods of the plant were, and still are, eaten and various claims have been made about their medicinal value. Thomas Nuttall, famous 18th century botanist, collected this plant for science in the early 1800s.


©2010 Patrick Alexander

Description

plant with stems to 1 1/2' long, variably . Stems sprawling. Leaves to 6" long, with 15-33 , broadly oval to -, hairy beneath, above. to over 5" long equaling or shorter than the leaf. with 7-25 flowers. to 1/2" long, the tube broadly to somewhat cylindric. Flowers to nearly 1" long, purple, lilac, cream, or green-white, the spotted, the . Pod is , fleshy, , on the ground, green to maroon.

Field Marks

Sprawling pea with long stems, many flowers, and plum-shaped seed pods.

© Al Schneider

globose -- Shaped like a ping pong ball, only smaller.

A peduncle is a common stalk of a cluster of flowers.

A perennial plant lives and blooms for many years.

pubescent -- downy; covered with short, soft, erect hairs.

calyx -- the sepals of a flower, typically forming a whorl that encloses the petals and forms a protective layer around a flower in bud.

fruit -- any seed-bearing structure in flowering plants. It is formed from the ovary after flowering.

pinnate -- A compound leaf with two rows of leaflets.

elliptic -- Oval, with no point or a very short point.

In a pea flower the two bottom petals are fused together forming a boat-like structure called the keel. The glumes of grasses may have a sharp projecting ridge like the keel of a boat.

recurved -- Curved backward.

A raceme is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along its axis.

campanulate -- bell shaped

glabrous -- smooth, glossy, having no bristles or hair-like structures. Bald.

leaflets -- Each little leaf-like thing in a compound leaf is a leaflet.

linear -- Long and very narrow like a blade of grass.